Washing clothes in an iron tub, c1890s

• This asset illustrates part of the laborious routine of a 'washing day' - before the introduction of electric washing machines, a whole day was set aside for washing clothes in either a large galvanised tub or in a 'copper' (a large round container lined with copper); water was boiled on the stove top and poured into the tub or a fire was lit under the copper; clothes were then added and moved around in the tub with a stick before being rinsed in cold water, scrubbed with homemade lye soap against a ribbed 'washboard' and squeezed to remove excess soap and water before being hung out to dry.
• It depicts 'whites' being either rinsed for the second time or whitened in water made blue through the addition of a small 'blue-bag', a cube of indigo tied in an old piece of sheeting - after rinsing, the clothes were hand-wrung again and may then have been put through a mangle, a series of rollers that squeezed out more water as the operator turned a handle.
• It shows part of a clothes line made from rope - clothes lines were typically tied between purpose-built posts, trees or buildings, with one or more tall notched poles or 'props' used to hold the centre of the line up high; if there was not enough room on the clothes line, clothes would be hung on fences and bushes; if it rained, the clothes would be hung under a veranda or taken inside and placed on drying racks near a fire to dry.
• It features a woman who may have been employed to wash the clothes - washing was such an arduous and time-consuming task that many middle-class families paid to have it done by a washer-woman, who either came to the house once a week or 'took in' washing to supplement her income.
• It shows typical clothing worn during the late 1800s by women performing housework - a blouse and skirt were preferred over a dress as the skirt required less washing; in this image, an apron has been tied around the waist to help keep the skirt clean; the woman is also wearing a folded scarf tied at the neck.

F; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12